The Solar Physics community identifies the High Energy Solar Imager (HESI), an integral part of the Solar Connections Program, as its highest priority new mission. HESI will revolutionize our understanding of solar flare energy release and particle acceleration. It is recognized that, to accomplish the scientific objectives of this mission, HESI must be launched no later than the year 2000, at the next peak in the solar activity cycle. Consequently, the Solar MOWG strongly urges the Space Physics Division to press for an early new start so that HESI can achieve this tight schedule.
The joint NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) will obtain exciting new observations that will provide an unprecedented view of the Sun, ranging from the deep solar interior, through the chromosphere, transition region and corona, and into the solar wind. We commend the SOHO project for its efforts to make its data rapidly available to the international scientific community, and for its development of user-friendly software for that purpose. In order to maximize the national scientific return from the diverse, extensive and yet complementary data sets, it is vital that a SOHO Guest Investigator (GI) program be established with a scope and size commensurate with those of the SOHO mission. The Solar MOWG finds that a GI program for SOHO should begin in Fiscal Year (FY) 97 and continue for the duration of the mission.
The Nation has a major investment in the instruments of ISTP and YOHKOH, which will be able to observe the entire rise to the next solar maximum and most of the period of high solar activity. This extremely cost-effective opportunity for scientific study of the full range of solar activity from minimum to maximum, with a homogeneous dataset of such great diagnostic power, is unprecedented in the history of space science. The Solar MOWG finds that full funding must be preserved for SOHO's baseline mission, two years after arrival at the L1 point, despite space craft-related launch delays. Furthermore, it is essential that appropriate MO&DA funds be maintained for both SOHO and YOHKOH through the next solar maximum.
The MSV program has been developed to promote cost-effective ways of studying the physics of solar variations. The program has advanced toward these goals through: the first Flare Genesis long-duration balloon flight scheduled to orbit the South Pole this December; cooperation with the Japanese Solar-B mission; and the development of a highly advanced Solar-Lite one-meter telescope at a tiny fraction of the OSL cost. Recent technical developments indicate that an order of magnitude increase in resolution of coronal x-ray images is now feasible at low cost. Furthermore, long-term global measurements of solar variability are a crucial element of the MSV program. The Solar MOWG finds that these efforts are of the highest importance to the Space Physics Division's goals and strongly supports advancement of the MSV program.
The recently defined MSM ("Close Encounter with the Sun") is an exciting mission with profound importance to both heliospheric and solar physics, designed to image and sample the Sun close to the source of heating and solar-wind acceleration. The Solar MOWG strongly encourages further development of this timely concept, which creatively reflects NASA's need for "faster, cheaper, and lighter" missions while still representing forefront discovery science.
The National Space Weather Program (NSWP) is now an approved inter-agency activity with a Strategic Plan to focus solar-terrestrial research and to utilize the research community's understanding to improve space environment monitoring and forecasting. Noting that this represents a great opportunity for NASA, the Solar MOWG reaffirms that the NSWP is of vital importance. For this program to be successful, NASA must play a leading role in the national space weather effort. The ISTP program will make fundamental contributions to the understanding of space weather and should be fully supported. Furthermore, we find that a mission to view the Sun from one or more perspectives away from the Sun-Earth line (a "stereo" mission) would be extremely useful, both for understanding solar physics and for the practical benefit of predicting geomagnetic storms.
The Solar MOWG congratulates the Space Physics Division Director for his revitalization of the suborbital program which continues to be (1) the most cost-effective access to space for scientific investigations which require observations from above the atmosphere, (2) the principal proving ground for new instruments, (3) the principal training ground for space instrumentalists, and (4) a major source of first rate science. Furthermore, the Solar MOWG finds merit in the Space Physics Division plan to establish a baseline level of support for both sounding rockets and balloons that would sustain a basic launch capability for these vehicles. The plan also provides the flexibility to support either additional suborbital operations or, alternatively, low cost orbital payloads with the decision on where this support is to be directed being based upon peer-reviewed results of responses to NASA Research Announcements and Announcements of Opportunities.
The MOWGs provide experienced input from the scientific community to NASA Management at the discipline level. MOWGs represent the space physics community to NASA, and MOWG members, in turn, help NASA Management disseminate information about program plans to the community. This healthy interaction provides continued accountability, new perspectives and valuable feedback, benefiting both the programmatic and scientific aspects of NASA's efforts. We find that joint MOWG meetings should be held periodically in order to further strengthen understanding of the Space Physics programs and to strengthen its interdisciplinary character.
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